By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Chilton County voters came out largely in support of Republican candidate Roy Moore, giving him 7,555 votes (75.66 percent) compared to 2,298 votes (23.01 percent) for Democratic candidate Doug Jones in the Special General Election on Dec. 12.

Write-in votes accounted for 132 (1.32 percent) of local votes.

According to results on the Alabama Secretary of State website, 35.42 percent of registers voters actually cast a ballot in Chilton County.

However, a number of Chilton County voters used the Straight Party Voting option, where a voter marks a party preference on the ballot and does not vote for specific candidates. According to local election results, 2,626 Republican Straight Party ballots were cast and 989 Democrat Straight Party ballots were cast.

When a voter chooses the Straight General Election option, it casts a vote for the candidate of that party.

The results of the Special General Election are in, and Jones has been elected U.S. Senator for Alabama.

Jones received 49.92 percent of the vote, while Moore received 48.38 percent.

Write in candidates accounted for 1.69 percent.

Clanton resident Howard DeJarnett said he was glad to see a mixture of the parties that are representing Alabama.

“Alabama did the right thing finally,” DeJarnett said of the Dec. 12 election.” Alabama has been letting Republicans run the state and jobs aren’t getting any better.”

He said he was glad to see Alabama voters that “were not afraid to vote Democrat.”

C.J. Robinson, chair of the Chilton County Republican party, said the election is a lesson that a party “can never take an election for granted no matter who is running or what party they represent.”

He said the party will work hard to have the best candidate in 2020.

Robinson said Republicans have become divisive among themselves and needs to find candidates who can unify the party.

Tommy Scoggins of Clanton had planned to vote for Moore, but changed his mind after the allegations of sexual misconduct were reported. He also found it disappointing that Moore did not concede the election once the votes were counted.

“Sheer Delight” is how Lee Rozelle of Thorsby described his reaction to the election results. Rozelle said he felt Jones was a candidate who would represent the state in a way that represents its values.